Page:Descent of Man 1875.djvu/217

Rolleston, Mr. Marshall, M. Broca and Professor Turner. At the conclusion of a special paper on this subject the latter writes:[1]

"The three specimens of the brain of a Chimpanzee, just described, prove that the generalisation which Gratiolet has attempted to draw of the complete absence of the first connecting convolution and the concealment of the second, as essentially characteristic features in the brain of this animal, is by no means universally applicable. In only one specimen did the brain, in these particulars, follow the law which Gratiolet has expressed. As regards the presence of the superior bridging convolution, I am inclined to think that it has existed in one hemisphere, at least, in a majority of the brains of this animal which have, up to this time, been figured or described. The superficial position of the second bridging convolution is evidently less frequent, and has as yet, I believe, only been seen in the brain (A) recorded in this communication. The asymmetrical arrangement in the convolutions of the two hemispheres, which previous observers have referred to in their descriptions, is also well illustrated in these specimens." (pp. 8, 9.)

Even were the presence of the temporo-occipital, or external perpendicular, sulcus a mark of distinction between the higher apes and man, the value of such a distinctive character would be rendered very doubtful by the structure of the brain in the Platyrhine apes. In fact, while the temporo-occipital is one of the most constant of sulci in the Catarhine, or Old World, apes, it is never very strongly developed in the New World apes; it is absent in the smaller Platyrhini; rudimentary in Pithecia;[2] and more or less obliterated by bridging convolutions in Ateles.

A character which is thus variable within the limits of a single group can have no great taxonomic value.

It is further established, that the degree of asymmetry of the convolution of the two sides in the human brain is subject to much individual variation; and that, in those individuals of the Bushman race who have been examined, the gyri and sulci of the two hemispheres are considerably less complicated and more symmetrical than in the European brain, while, in some individuals of the chimpanzee, their complexity and asymmetry become notable. This is particularly the case in the brain of a young male chimpanzee figured by M. Broca. ('L’ordre des Primates,' p. 165, fig. 11.)

Again, as respects the question of absolute size, it is established that the difference between the largest and the smallest healthy human brain is greater than the difference between the smallest healthy human brain and the largest chimpanzee's or orang's brain.

Moreover, there is one circumstance in which the orang's and chimpanzee's brains resemble man's, but in which they differ from the lower apes, and that is the presence of two corpora candicantia—the Cynomorpha having but one.

In view of these facts I do not hesitate in this year 1874, to repeat and insist upon the proposition which I enunciated in 1863:[3]

"So far as cerebral structure goes, therefore, it is clear that man

↑Notes more especially on the bridging convolutions in the Brain of the Chimpanzee, 'Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh,' 1865–6.

↑Flower, 'On the Anatomy of Pithecia Monachus,' 'Proceedings of the Zoological Society,' 1862.